Glomp Bandit
by ApollaCammi
Summary: It's National Hug Day, and Little Castle's starting a trend. Lanie/Esposito.


**A/N:** This is for ChampionshipVinyl, who told me that if I was going to keep talking about Alexis giving people hugs, I should "just write it, already!" The Lanie/Espo surprised me and snuck in while I wasn't watching. I'm so proud of them.

(National Hug Day is January 21st – according to Wikipedia)

**Disclaimer:** None of them belong to me. Just visiting Andrew Marlowe's sandbox.

**Glomp Bandit**

Little Castle's starting a trend. Lanie/Esposito.

* * *

"Okay." Castle stood up from their little powwow session around Beckett's desk and grabbed his coat. "That's it. This is the tenth time I've heard someone's stomach growling in the last fifteen minutes. What do you guys want for dinner?"

"You don't have to feed us, Castle." Beckett absentmindedly replied, engrossed in her phone records. "There's stuff in the fridge."

"Clearly I do, since you three can't remember to feed yourselves. That 'stuff' in the fridge is three weeks old and it's growing. I think it'll start walking by the end of the week." Castle shook his head sadly. "How the NYPD's finest have fallen. So, what do you want?"

"Burgers." Ryan and Esposito chorused, not looking up.

"Remy's it is." Castle nodded. "Back in a flash."

"And my opinion's, what, chopped liver?" Beckett asked the boys, watching Castle hop in the elevator.

Ryan's brow furrowed. "What _would_ you have said?"

"A burger." Beckett sheepishly admitted.

"See?" Esposito grinned. "He didn't have to ask, he just read your mind."

Ryan smirked.

"Oh, come on." Beckett rolled her eyes. "I thought you two were over your paranormal kick."

They shrugged.

Beckett checked her watch and frowned. "Esposito, call the phone company in the morning and get the name that belongs to this number, would you?" She handed him the highlighted page. "Martina called that number twenty times in the last week, and they were long conversations. Maybe they can tell us something about why we found her in the Upper East Side when she was supposed to be at a meeting at Columbia. Ryan, how are the emails coming along?"

"Lots of funny forwards, Facebook notifications – Emily wrote on your wall, Sam sent you a message, that sort of thing; and then there are a few with a Tristan Nichols – can't believe we ran into each other, need to catch up soon, when are you back in town, etc. He could be our mysterious number." Ryan looked at the two of them and turned the printouts around so they could see them. "There are lots of smiley faces and hearts in those ones."

"Ex-boyfriend?" Esposito guessed.

"High school crush, probably." Beckett said, taking one of the pages and reading it over.

Ryan shrugged at Esposito.

"Coffee?" Esposito asked, standing up.

"No thanks, Esposito." Beckett turned back to her computer as her phone rang.

Ryan shook his head. Esposito shrugged and headed for the break room.

* * *

The smell of the coffee percolating was enough to revive Esposito's lagging brain, and he inhaled deeply. They'd been knee deep in reports and interviews and records since the body dropped early that morning. It was approaching eight now, and Esposito couldn't remember even pausing for lunch. No wonder Castle was clucking over them like a mother hen.

The espresso machine spit out the last of his coffee and he dumped some cream in it before turning to head back into the bullpen. As soon as he stepped outside the door, Esposito was attacked by a swirling mass of red hair. A tiny pair of arms wrapped themselves around him and squeezed tight, and then Alexis Castle was off and running.

Esposito shook his head and sat down at his desk before he looked over at Ryan. "Did you see that too, or was I hallucinating?" He should have known better than to drink Castle's coffee. The man was touched in the head, and it was probably contagious.

"Nah. She got me while you were getting coffee." Ryan shrugged.

"Is there a reason she's running around giving people hugs?"

"It's National Hug Day." Beckett smirked at them from her desk as Alexis flopped into her Dad's chair. "Don't you two ever open Google?"

"You're supposed to give hugs to people who need them on Hug Day. Strangers, friends, family." Alexis grinned. "I thought if anyone needed a hug, it would be you guys."

"Thanks, Little Castle." Esposito grinned.

"Much appreciated." Ryan added.

"Just don't forget to pass them on – Dad!" Alexis blew past them and practically tackled Castle as he came back from their dinner run. "Happy Hug Day!"

"Hey, pumpkin. Happy Hug Day." Castle shifted the food to his left hand and caught Alexis with his right. "I didn't know you were going to drop by today."

"I didn't either, but it snowed." Alexis beamed. "Really snowed. There's enough snow on the roof that we could have a really good fight."

"A snowball fight," Castle clarified for the detectives.

"Sounds like fun." Ryan said, grinning. "Let me guess, Little Castle normally wins."

Esposito chuckled. "Feed the Birds, Ryan."

Beckett and Alexis laughed at the betrayed look on Castle's face. "I like to think of it as an even split." He held out the takeout bags. "I wasn't sure what you wanted, Beckett, so I got one with cheese and one without. Which works out perfectly, since Alexis is here. You are going to stay for a while, aren't you?" Castle asked his daughter. "We can eat and then go battle it out on the roof."

Alexis looked over at the detectives.

"Sure." Beckett agreed. "We can borrow Karpowski's chair, she's gone home for the night. Pull up a desk corner, Alexis."

Ryan and Esposito dragged their chairs closer and rearranged Beckett's desk to make room as Castle brought Karpowski's chair over.

"Love what you've done with the place." Beckett said dryly, eyeing the precarious stack of papers, keyboard, and phone now sitting in the corner behind her computer.

"We do what we can." Esposito smirked.

Beckett shook her had and sat down, pulling her burgers out of the bag. "You want the cheeseburger, Alexis?"

"Yeah." Alexis grinned. "Thanks, Detective Beckett."

Beckett waved her off. "Thank your Dad for being neurotic and buying too many burgers." She scooted over to make room for Alexis between her and Castle. "So, Alexis, how's scho-" Beckett slapped Ryan's hand away as he tried to sneak an onion ring. "Ryan, hands to yourself."

Esposito and Ryan looked at each other and then leaned forward, each of them snagging a ring. Castle laughed at Beckett and even Alexis grinned. Beckett glared at them, but whatever she was about to say got cut off as her desk phone rang. She held out her hand and Ryan passed her phone over the computer.

"Beckett." She sighed into the receiver. "I'll be right there, Lanie." Beckett exchanged a mournful look with her burger. "Lanie found something; I have to go to the morgue. You guys hold down the fort, okay? And don't leave Castle unsupervised."

"I'll go, Beckett." Esposito offered. "You stay, catch up with Little Castle."

Alexis perked up. "Oh, can I –"

"No." Castle said immediately. "No morgue for you, Baby Bird."

Ryan sighed and started packing his dinner back into the bag.

"Nah, bro, no need for both of us to go hungry." Esposito waved his partner off and grabbed his food. "I'll be back in half an hour, anyways."

"Lanie said she found something funky, so it'll be more like an hour." Beckett interjected.

"Either way. Hey, you can start the warrant for the phone company." Esposito smirked.

"I hate you." Ryan shook his head.

"It's just paperwork. Ain't gonna kill you. Later, Castles."

* * *

Esposito hesitated in the hall and then leaned into the autopsy suite, tapping on the door. "Hey, Doc."

Lanie briefly looked up and caught his eye before turning back to her cut. Well, at least she'd acknowledged him.

"What are you doing here, Esposito?"

"Letting Beckett finish her dinner." Esposito shrugged, dropped his takeout bag on Lanie's desk. "You want some fries?"

"I want to go home and go to sleep." Lanie groused. "But I'm here, cutting up bodies for ungrateful folks who eat in front of me." Lanie looked down at Martina. "Men."

"What've we got, Lanie?" Esposito asked, sidling up next to the medical examiner.

"Do you have to do that?" Lanie scowled sideways at him.

"Do what?"

"Sneak."

"Uh…"

"Never mind." Lanie turned her back on him. "So, preliminary cause of death was-"

Esposito stepped around her so they were facing each other and wrapped his arms around her waist. Lanie instantly stopped talking.

"Javier Esposito, what do you think you're doing?" She said a moment later, voice muffled by his shirt.

"It's Hug Day." Esposito said blithely.

"Esposito."

"Relax, Lanie."

"_Esposito."_ Lanie's voice sharpened.

"It's from Little Castle." Esposito said, stepping back. "She gave all of us hugs but I don't think Castle was all that thrilled about the possibility of Alexis seeing a real live dead body in the foreseeable future."

Lanie laughed. Esposito grinned back at her and stifled a yawn. A quick glance down at his watch told him it was almost nine thirty. Traffic wasn't going to let up any time soon, and if Beckett wanted to see the report before she left for the night (because Alexis would probably convince her to join the snowball fight – girl had the best puppy dogs eyes he'd ever seen) he should probably get going. And Lanie certainly wouldn't object to an 'early' night. "Okay, well, Beckett wants the report and you want to go, so I'll just take this folder and tell her to call you tomorrow with questions." Esposito grabbed the blue folder off the table and waved it at her in farewell. "Night."

"Good night, Detective." Lanie called after him. She stripped off her gloves and turned to dump them in the garbage beside her desk and paused.

He'd left the fries.

Lanie grinned.


End file.
